Jungle Roar Bengals Breakouts And Breakthroughs To Watch For This Season

I want to talk about some of the players we should be expecting to take that next step with the Cincinnati Bengals.

And I think I want to start on defense and take a look at Jordan Battle just because he plays such a pivotal role at the back end of the defense.

A lot of people wondering what kind of impact bringing in a free agent like Brian Cook, a two-time Super Bowl champion.

What kind of impact might he have on Jordan Battle? What's your view on Jordan Battle going into this season?

Jordan Battle is an interesting player because he's such a polar player.

He'll have the crazy splash plays and he'll contribute in that way and then he'll have occasional gaffes or missed responsibilities or missed tackles or there's some plays where it looks like the effort isn't maybe what you would expect it to be, but that could just be what it looks like from the couch sitting at home.

Or when you're watching the film, it maybe isn't exactly what you perceive it to be.

So I don't want to necessarily make any sweeping declarations about anything like that because we're not in the room.

And so we're always coming with that outside perspective that isn't in the safety rooms with Jordan Kovacs and getting through the film.

But yeah, The feast or famine nature of Jordan Battle's game is fascinating because he came on as a rookie and was a playmaker and was a player that looked like he had a bright future.

And then the inconsistency started to hit for the last couple of years.

But if the stabilizing presence of Brian Cook leads to a more consistent Jordan Battle, then you have a pretty darn good player if the splash plays remain.

If you keep the splash plays but clean up some of the inconsistencies and some of the downplays, then you have a probably better than average safety in Jordan battle for what he can do.

He's a little bit athletically limited.

Obviously he's not the top, top end athletes, but you don't have to be at safety.

Jesse Bates wasn't the craziest athlete in the world, but had the reaction time and the processing ability to make up for that.

And Kyle Hamilton, he's very athletic, but didn't run the crazy 40 or anything like that.

And is one of the most impactful safeties in the league.

So you don't have to be Nicky Manwari to be a really good player to Not that Jordan Battle is the same position as Nicky Manwari, really, but The big thing is going to be, can he be more consistent? And I think that's a theme for a lot of the players on this defense, a lot of the young guys that need to take a step this year.

Jordan Battle's certainly up there because when you're looking for playmakers, he's honestly near the top of the list for ball production in terms of punching the ball out and getting his hands onto footballs either with interceptions or pass breakups.

So the consistency bit for him could go a long way because he has the splash play element that he sprinkles in already.

What I really am excited to see and interested to see for the Bengals this year is how their retooled front seven or their defensive front on the first two levels impacts Jordan Battle because too many times I think over the last two seasons, Jordan Battle has been asked to play in space way too much, and I don't think that's his strength.

Certainly when he's closer and he's a more physical safety, that plays to his skill set, I think, and based on some of the people I've talked to, coaches, certainly I think Al Golden's made reference to that before.

When he is in tight space with the ball carrier, I think he has a much more – he has a much higher percentage chance of bringing the ball carrier to the ground.

When he's asked to play in space, I think that's when he gets into trouble.